October 24. Bruce Olson. Bruce is a Scandinavian American Christian missionary best known for his work in bringing Christianity to the Motilone Indians of Colombia and Venezuela. But on his very first trip into the jungle, Bruce walked in circles for hours, and when he stopped for the night, he had no machete, not even a tool to open his can of sardines.
He sat on the trail with his mule, and he when he realized that the mule wasn’t scared, Bruce figured he would be all right, too. Getting to all right had some hiccups, but welcoming this people to faith in Jesus was worth it.
Then, after years serving here, on this date in 1988, Bruce was captured by a band of guerrilla terrorists who wanted to control this territory. And God rescued him again. Today’s story takes place in early days, when reaching out to the Motilone Indians.
Many men run from danger, but a few run toward it and overcome.
Bruce Olson ran toward.
Weak and wounded, Bruce stumbled onward through the jungle, and every time he slowed his pace, a hostile native jabbed him with an arrow. They led him forward to a clearing and locked him in an Indian longhouse.
For days he suffered there, and infection spread from an arrow that had been pulled out of his thigh. His stomach churned from hunger sometimes, but at other times, acrid smells of burning monkey fur and parrot feathers gagged him. The month dragged on as he prayed.
Then one moonlit night Bruce made a daring escape—and survived! He could go back to America where he was safe …
But he didn’t.
When he was a teenager, he had heard a rousing sermon on the need to reach unreached souls for Christ. This began an inner struggle. “Why can’t I be your servant here in Minneapolis?” he had asked the Lord. God didn’t answer, but slowly changed Bruce’s heart until the idea of serving in a foreign land became intriguing. South America had captured his interest, and two countries in particular: Colombia and Venezuela. He knew he had to go.
Once Bruce surrendered to the idea of foreign service, he became unstoppable. At nineteen—with only seventy dollars in his pocket and no missionary backing to support him—he flew to South America.
“So he said to me, ‘This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty’” (Zechariah 4:6 NIV).
Bruce prepared by spending several months adjusting to jungle life with a less aggressive tribe called the Yukos. He convinced six of them to guide his way to Motilone territory. (This was the expedition that ended with Bruce’s unfortunate capture initially described.) The Yukos escaped back into the jungle.
Later, Bruce went alone to try to reach the Motilones, and he left gifts on their trails and waited. When they appeared again, they cautiously received him as harmless—even a friend. God had granted Bruce acceptance with the tribe! Now the Motilones called him “Bruchko.”
Incredibly, the Motilones held an ancient belief that a tall prophet with yellow hair carrying banana stalks (Bruce was tall and blond) would one day appear to lead them to God. Knowledge of God would come out of the banana stalks.
One time when Bruce and the Motilones were hunting, they talked about the legend, and the group came upon two Motilones—one looking for God in a hole, the other over the horizon. Someone sliced open a fallen stalk. The inner leaves fell open like the pages of a book.
Bruce cried out, “This is it! I have it here! This is God’s banana stalk.” He took his Bible and held it up, then proceeded to share the gospel in ways the natives could comprehend. Eventually, nearly the entire Motilone tribe began to “walk on Jesus’ trail” through faith in Christ.
No one would have suspected a near-sighted, unathletic, and unassuming teenage boy would leave the United States to reach a tribe so fierce and isolated. He would be the first to contact them with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yet Bruce Olson believed he was called to be like Jesus wherever it would take him, and he went.
Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5 NIV), but with Jesus we can do anything he asks.
Is God asking you to reach out to someone? Take a step of faith toward that one today. Many men run from danger, but a few run toward it and overcome.
Olson, Bruce. Bruchko: The Astonishing True Story of a 19-Year-Old American, His Capture by the Motilone Indians and His Adventures in Christianizing the Stone Age Tribe. Lake Mary, Florida: Charisma House, 2006. p. 26.
Olson, Bruce and James Lund. Bruchko and the Motilone Miracle, How Bruce Olson Brought a Stone Age Tribe into the 21st Century. Lake Mary, Florida: Charisma House, 2006.
Story read by: Peter R Warren, https://www.peterwarrenministries.com/
Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter
Audio production: Joel Carpenter
Editor: Teresa Crumpton, https://authorspark.org/
Project manager: Blake Mattocks
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